2016 France Championship
The 2016 France MONOPOLY Championship took place December 3rd and 4th, 2016 in Toulon as part of a Games & Toy Convention (Palais du Jeu et du Jouet) at Toulon et au Palais Neptune. Philippe Pinoli was the defending French champion (2015), and served as the head judge and also competed in the tournament. Over the course of two days of the tournament, 42 players competed, and Pinoli reemerged as the French champion for the 2nd consecutive year. Generally, the rules were following those implemented at the past World Championship. They played with speed-die rules throughout the tournament. There was no cost to enter the tournament, as long as you had a ticket for the convention. You also didn't need to be a French citizen to compete; however, the title of 2016 French Champion (and trophy) would only be awarded to the highest placing French player. Hasbro also provided Monopoly sets to the 32 finalists, and bonus sets for the semi-finalists and finalists. On Day 1 (December 3rd), 42 players competed in 1-hour, 4 player games to earn points. You could compete in as many consecutive games as you could during the time that the doors were open; the player who played in the most games (Christian Meuley) played in seven games on Day 1. Your cumulative point total across all the games you played on Saturday were tallied. The 32 players with the highest points were then invited to play in a 1-hour quarter-final on Sunday (Day 2). The top 2 players at each of the 8 tables then advanced to a 1-hour semi-final round. The winner of each semi-final round then competed in the final match for the title. The final round was won by Philippe Pinoli, with Christopher Lamulle finishing 2nd, Joevyn Wittebole in 3rd, and Alain Ofcard finishing 4th. Tournament Recap Here is a recap of the tournament from champion and judge Pinoli, edited for clarity: : Christian Meuley & Anne-Claire Pichard were the first ones to enter the tournament as the doors opened. They remained focused on their goals as they respectively played 7 and 4 games on the first day. A group of four friends, Aymen Boughalem, Alexis Wattignies, Yanis Athamnia and Nohman Mouala all qualified for Day 2 by playing in the last qualifying game of the day. It was also the most fun game of the day; I should know as I was the banker for that game. Nohman was the final qualifiying player, placing 32nd on Day 1 through a tie-breaker based on total assets with three other players. : Quarter-Finals: On Day 2, the 32 players were spread on 8 tables according to their Day 1 results, with the Top 8 players spread out amongst the eight tables. Several upsets occurred in these quarterfinal games. First of all, two of the top seeds fell at their respective tables: Sébastien Jacques, the top ranked player after Day 1, and Ionnis Sigalas, who had been in 8th placee. David Auneau, 10 years old, was the youngest player. A few players did not come back, notably Eline Charnez, one of the seven women who made advanced to Day 2. Three of the four “6 o’clock horsemen” group of friends cruised to the top 16, while Alexis Wattignies was eliminated. : As far as my own quarterfinal is concerned, unfortunately with only 3 players, poor Nourhen Khemis rapidly was blocked and kept without a full color group by Joevyn Wittebole and myself. She was bankrupted in less than 20 minutes, the quickest game of the 8 tables. Oddly enough, 5 triples occurred in this short game, including two triples in a row, an odd probability! : Semifinals: Now with just 16 players remaining on four tables, only each table winner would reach the Final. Two tables saw very close outcomes as Alain Ofcard topped Christian Meuley only 37 dollars and Christopher Lamulle beat Aymen Boughalem by a mere $10!!! : My own semifinal was epic as my 3 opponents kept on avoiding my 3 houses on the Orange set, alas protected by the Pennsylvania Railroad I dealt as part of the king’s ransom I had to pay to Nohman Mouala to complete the set. Four times they got out of jail with 7 or 10, safely avoiding my properties. I kept on preventing Monique Leparlier and Yanis Athamnia chances to complete sets but Nohman Mouala kept building a pile of $100s with dozens of Railroad rents to go with his set of Utilities. I managed to prevent him from completing any buildable complete set and finally bankrupted both Monique and Yanis within 10 minutes of the time limit, still behind him in total cash. The speed dice finally started to send Nohman Mouala to St James Avenue but he managed to pay me three times the $950 without being bankrupted. And he survived until the end. But the outcome was that I was ahead and was back in the final. : The final players included the myself (Day 1 – 2nd Place), Alain Ofcard (Day 1 – 4th Place) and Christopher Lamulle (Day 1 – 7th Place) as well as Joevyn Wittebole (Day 1 – 23rd Place), who I played against earlier in my quarterfinal. Banked by Sébastien Jacques, the final had a very unfortunate start for Joevyn (double 2s, landing on Income Tax), two times in Jail for Alain and a quick purchase of two Yellows by Christopher. The first Railroad went Christopher’s way too, oddly enough only after 10 minutes, but the remaining three railroads landed on my side of the board. Christopher drew six very favorable Chance cards (Advance to Go, Get $150, Go to Illinois…) in as many turns and already owned two Yellows and two Oranges. Alain refused Christopher’s losing deal offer of Marvins Gardens for Vermont Avenue, as his Light Blue set against Yellow would certainly have offered the title to the already overly rich in money and properties, Christopher. I then offered Christopher an unrefusable deal consisting of 2 Reds and a Utility for Boardwalk. It was a risky move as a few properties were still available but alea iacta est … Joevyn’s weak Brown set was only hit once, by me, and he bankrupted later on Christopher’s Illinois with four houses. The 12 houses on Alain’s Light Blues don’t pay often, blocked by my Reading Railroad. Alain soon bankrupted on my Park Place with three houses. With Joevyn’s Short Line now out of the way, I upgraded Park Place to four houses. Christopher began a series of stays in Jail, but I then manage to avoid rolling any Mr. Monopolys, having only enough money left to pay one rent on Kentucky before having to sell my Dark Blue houses. He finally gets one roll that costs him huge on Park Place, having to sell his houses and basically losing the game. He courageously refused to concede and soon rebuilt two houses with his final passing of GO. After 45 furious minutes of a very fair-played and enjoyable game (all four finalists had a full set), the Dark Blues once again reigned supreme….and I repeated as the French champ! The 32 Quarter-Finalists and their Final Place Tournament Schedule December 3rd 10:00a : Opening of the doors 10:00a-7:00p : free games start on 8 tables as soon as 4 players gathered December 4th 10:00a : Opening of the doors 11:00a-12:00p : quarterfinals on the 8 tables 12:15p : semifinalists revealed 2:00p-3:00p : semifinals on 4 tables 3:15p : finalists revealed 4:00p : finalists presentation 4:15p-5:45p : final 6:00p : awards ceremony 7:00p : end of the tournament Category:France Category:2016 Category:France Championship